It makes more sense to contemplate the ifs, rather than turn into General Jerkishness. It's clear the Gaels (2-2) will now have to beat the very beatable Western Mustangs in the final regular-season game on Oct. 21 in order to finish 4-4 and be assured of a spot in the Ontario University Athletics football playoffs.
Going 3-5 has been good enough to get the No. 6 seed in the OUA the past couple years, but that can also trigger all these tiebreaker scenarios, and you know how we sports scribes hate doing math. One scenario involves Guelph (now 1-3) beating Waterloo (2-2) on Oct. 7, pulling an upset somewhere else along the way, and leaving those teams tied with Queen's for the last playoff spot. In that case, point differential from the teams' games against each other would be used, and Queen's would likely be safe since it had a one-point loss to Waterloo and a 21-point win over Guelph.
If Waterloo and Queen's tie at 3-5, though, the Gaels are totally SOL.
Which means Queen's would be well-disposed to beat Western next month The OUA is supposed to be more balanced this fall, so it's entirely possible, if a little unlikely, for a team that lost to Waterloo (which barely beat the U of T Varsity Blues) to knock the Mustangs on their media-inflated reputations.
(Awful Announcing Digression I: During The Score's University Rush broadcast yesterday, announcers Ryan Paton and Duane Forde got caught up reminiscing about their "days at Western" and neglected to tell viewers that the previous play had come up two yards short of a first down, requiring a field goal try. Far be it to say that might have been important to mention on a telecast that doesn't use the yellow first-down line.
Not to be left out of the Mustang love-in, sideline reporter Adnan Virk addressed Larry Haylor as "Coach" during a halftime interview.)
The way the Mustangs lost to Laurier yesterday was even more abject than Queen's losing on the final play to a weak team. Western got thumped 34-18 despite being up two touchdowns early against a team playing a a backup quarterback, Ian Noble, who only threw enough (10 passes) to keep the defence honest.
MOUTHY MUSTANG
If it was karma at work, it might have started with one mouthy Mustang. After putting Western up 15-0 with a 19-yard touchdown run, tailback D.J. Bennett was interviewed on the sideline by my old friend Virk, who for once wasn't the smuggest person in the conversation, as Bennett declared "my grandmother could have scored on that play" and proceeded to rattle off a promo for CFL Snap, a show hosted by Forde, the former Western star. Very cute, D.J., but the football gods were not amused.
The next time Western got the ball, they promptly fumbled inside their own 10-yard line to set up Laurier's first touchdown. Bennett gained all of four yards on his other seven carries, but that was just one sorry statistic in this Mustangs meltdown.
Western looked dead in the water even though they led at halftime. As noted in this week's preview, the game was going to hinge on Western's ability to run the ball against Laurier's defence. When The Score put up the first-half stats and showed a Laurier had outrushed Western 98-58 to that point, yours truly proclaimed, "Game over," although the Mustangs were ahead 18-16.
(UPDATE, Monday 12:30 a.m.: Western was a little lacking in grace after the game, as evidenced by linebacker Nick Kordic telling the London Free Press that Laurier "didn't do anything in the first half." Sure, he was upset about losing, but you have to wonder... no, Nick, they didn't do anything except outrush you by 40 yards and erase a 15-point lead in a span of four minutes.
Oh, and during the pre-game introductions, Western players jumped on the Laurier logo on midfield. I mean, they did beat Laurier back in 2003, so it's not like they haven't earned the right.)
The hidden play that probably tipped it to the Golden Hawks came on the first drive of the second half. On second-and-long, a draw play was the predictable call, since Laurier wasn't risking a pass while it was on its own side of midfield. Western's Johnny Chehade broke through the line but whiffed on the tackle and fullback Peter Quinney got the first down. Laurier churned out a couple more first downs before it had to punt, but pinned Western at its own 12-yard line. On the next play, quarterback Michael Faulds obligingly delivered an interception to Laurier safety Jim Martyniuk, setting up a quick three-play drive for the go-ahead TD.
The whole second half was catered completely to Laurier, who never seems fazed when they fall behind and always find ways to keep the offence moving. (Ten different players carried the ball or caught a pass.)
Basically, it was the kind of performance Western typically turns in when it plays any well-coached, physical team: Poor tackling on defence, coupled with offensive play-calling that verges on being self-destructive. Martyniuk made the first two of his three interceptions when Western tried a play-action pass on the first play of a new drive, even though a good play-action fake usually requires having a running game that produces more than 45 yards on the afternoon. Figure that one out.
LAST-DITCH DRIVE
Not that Queen's didn't have some bad karma last night, losing the way they did, with Morbey moving Waterloo -- a team that went 10 quarters without a touchdown to start the season -- 76 yards in 64 seconds. The Gaels defence played well despite the absence of injured linebacker Ian Hazlett, just like they did against Windsor, but the bad karma came from Queen's failure to move the ball against a Waterloo defence last seen giving up 500-some yards to the U of T. It was raining, but no runs over 10 yards? No pass plays over 20 yards until the next-to-last minute of the game?
In hindsight, perhaps it was kismet that when the Gaels, trailing 8-6, finally got a play for big yardage, it worked against them. As a result of Brad Smith's 47-yard catch that set up the go-ahead touchdown, Waterloo had enough time for a last-ditch drive. If Queen's had kept moving methodically, 8-10 yards at a time, they may well have run the clock down and kicked a last-second field goal to win 9-8, and the wannabe comedians handling the CFRC radio broadcast would have had another chance to use the same line about "kicking like a mule on payday" that accompanied Ryan Elger's two field goals.
(Cue General Jerkishness for Awful Announcing Digression II: "Queen's football is a quasi-religious experience for some people and they're making references to a mediocre Simpsons episode. This same crew already did its part to make "You're With Me, Leather" uncool. Let's be fair, though -- we were all young once... It's a learning experience for them too.)
It's neither here nor there that the Gaels let a win slip away against Waterloo. It happens. The upshot is that after watching Western get whipped in the second half by Laurier, there's a realization of what game is going to make or break the Gaels.
If Queen's can't beat a Western team that gets outscored 34-3 over the game's final 41 minutes, then what will that say about them?
OTHER CIS STUFF
- The Week 4 picks worked out quite well, with yours truly going 11-1 pending Bishop's-Laval this afternoon. For the second time in three weeks, the Gaels were involved in the lone miss. Closest call was McMaster's 32-20 win over Windsor (predicted score: 31-21).
- Talk about your Wild West shootouts: the Saskatchewan Huskies beat the UBC Thunderbirds 35-33 in a game that had six lead changes, including three in the final 90 seconds.
- The Québec conference swept its four interlocking games against Atlantic teams, highlighted by Sherbrooke beating sixth-ranked Acadia 42-28. The Vert et Or scored 37 points in a span of 17 minutes. One of the officials needed ice for his shoulder after signalling "touchdown" so frequently in so little time.
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